Life imitates art at Lehigh County Courthouse

WHITE

On stage at the Muhlenberg College Studio Theatre, Steve Martin's play "Picasso at the Lapin Agile" dramatizes an imaginary chance meeting between Pablo Picasso and Albert Einstein in 1904 Paris.

Coincidentally enough, another extraordinary chance convergence of luminaries played out last week in a Lehigh County courtroom -- and it wasn't even fiction.

The characters in this local drama? One is a big-talking wheeler-dealer who ended up presiding over a debt-ridden collection of eyesores in downtown Allentown. The other began as an inept small-time dog breeder and kennel operator whose more recent aura of respectability is crumbling in a wave of bad publicity.

It was only by dumb luck that I was there. I nominated Mendelson for Hall of Fame status this year, but I had no idea he was making a public appearance. I was on hand to hear the outcome of the American Kennel Club's request for a preliminary injunction against Eckhart. Mendelson was a bonus, like an unannounced 2-for-1 sale.

Mendelson was facing a contempt citation for failing to comply with a court order to turn over records of his financial holdings in connection with a $1 million-plus debt to a commercial lender.

Standing before Wallitsch, Mendelson blamed his foot-dragging on ill health and financial problems. He said that between a car accident last year and a heart attack this summer, he hasn't been able to attend to his affairs. Fresh from stomach surgery and facing future spinal surgery, he said, he had crawled out of bed to attend the hearing and was groggy with morphine, among other things.

He also said his financial records are so complicated and voluminous that he can't afford to pay his accountant to assemble them.

In short, he is an innocent victim of circumstances.

I was reminded of the immortal Easton slumlord Larry Marra, who routinely developed heart problems when the heat was on one of his properties. This always was greeted with skepticism -- until Marra keeled over and died of a heart attack.

So I won't cast aspersions on Mendelson's health claims, even though he seemed to perk up considerably after he left the courtroom and began working his cell phone.

In any event, his excuses didn't satisfy the judge. He found Mendelson in contempt and gave him 15 days to produce the documents. Otherwise, Wallitsch said, he'll be going to jail.

Eckhart's case required even less discussion. The AKC says in its court filings that Eckhart and his wife deliberately deceived them about his identity so he and his customers could keep registering dogs after his membership had been suspended. The club wanted a preliminary injunction to make him stop tricking customers into thinking their dogs were AKC eligible.

Eckhart agreed to the terms of the injunction, although he initially balked at a provision for actually telling customers that the dogs they were buying weren't AKC eligible. The AKC insisted.

The stars of the afternoon's proceedings sat at opposite ends of the courtroom and, as nearly as I could tell, they didn't converse afterward. So unless I use my imagination, I'm unlikely to get much of a play out of it.